Encore Programs

21 July 2017

The long days and short nights of midsummer are a special time. We retreat from our intense work schedules and attend festivals and celebrations, some crowded and intense, others quiet and restorative. We travel, take vacations, entertain friends and relax on warm summer evenings. As the night deepens, activity fades, and the lulling sounds of nature and warm breezes create a seductive environment, inspiring ambient composers to create poetic images of a soft, nurturing night.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, an hour of ambient music for the season, on a program called MIDSUMMER NIGHT 3.

30 June 2017

Summer...inspires an even more ethereal brand of Ambient electronica. Whether flying or floating on the balmy breezes, the sounds are airy and the movement is light and buoyant. The words we use to describe the moods it creates are superlative: joyous, blissful, ecstatic, delightful — even heavenly. And when it comes to heaven—for some reason we prefer the 7th.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, an ambient-electronic-summer-journey called CLOUD NINE. Yes, we also number the clouds.

Music is by CHRONOTOPE PROJECT, FANGER & SCHONWALDER, JOHN LYELL, ARIEL KALMA, and DAVE LUXTON.

02 June 2017

The Balearic Islands — Mallorca, Minorca, Ibiza, and Formentera — occupy prime real estate in the Mediterranean Sea, just off the eastern coast of Spain. In ancient times, it was a tough neighborhood. The islands were invaded successively by the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Vandals, Byzantines, Arabs, and finally...the Aragons.

These days things are lively, but a lot quieter — they're all popular tourist destinations, home to a tapestry of musical cultures that matches their multi-cultural past, and an up-to-date vibe that runs from acoustic to electronic, sensual to chilled.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, a journey into the Mediterranean soundscape new and old called BALEARICA.

05 May 2017

THE TRIBAL MUSIC TRADITIONS of Asia, Africa and the Americas stretch back to the mists of pre-history. For perhaps a hundred centuries, music was made with simple, even primitive instruments: flutes, rattles, drums and percussion; lyres, harps and strings; and wind instruments of various sizes and tones. It was an all-acoustic world, where music and instruments evolved slowly.

Then in the late 19th and 20th centuries, electricity and electronics began to transform the world and transform music. First came the telegraph and the telephone, then radio, then recordings, and then the instruments themselves. Guitars and pianos became electric...and then electronic. And finally, purely electronic instruments of dazzling variety and unlimited potential to create new sounds.

After the electronic music revolution of the 1960s and 70s, the entire studio became a musical instrument, and the sound of recordings has never been quite the same. Today, ethnic instruments and genres can be set in new Ambient soundscapes, a fusion of the old world and the new.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, ethnic instruments join electronic ambient, on a program called "ETHNOTRONIC." Music is by TUU, GREEN ISAC, SACRED EARTH, CHINMAYA DUNSTER, MANEESH DE MOOR, ARCHETRIBE, LOREN NERELL & MARK SEELIG, STILLPOINT and MICHEL BANABILA..

07 April 2017

The sound of a verdant landscape on a bright spring day. It reminds us of the natural environment that's nurtured us since the beginning of life on earth.

Looking out, our eyes come to rest on the horizon, the distant sky and delicate clouds. These are worlds that composers of environmental ambient music bring to us, melding sounds of the natural world into their music, and creating atmospheric soundscapes for us to travel in.

In the last 50 years, we've begun to recognize our responsibility to the environment — for ourselves and for generations to come. Forest, mountain, jungle, grassland, desert, tundra, ocean: whatever your favorite, environmental music sends a message beyond ideology or politics — to cherish our relationship to the natural world and expand our hope for the future.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, a terrestrial-ambient-future journey called CLOUD OF PROMISE. Music is by ATOMIC SKUNK, CHAD KETTERING, MICHAEL STEARNS, RESONANT DRIFT, MAX CORBACHO, and DAN POUND.

10 March 2017

Another year rolls by, and with it our early spring celebration of St. Patrick's Dayand all things Celtic. And when it comes to traditional Celtic music, it seems to be a bit bipolar — half lively, manic jigs and reels; half sad, some might say depressive, ballads. But it's all good, because you'll not find a more beautiful folk music tradition anywhere.

Of course these days the Celtic homelands are all thoroughly modern countries, but the music lives on, ready to be reborn by a new generation of musicians and rediscovered by a new generation of listeners.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, another journey to the slow, heartfelt side of Celtic music, on a program called CELTIC LEGACY 3.

24 February 2017

Winter...blankets the landscape with a leaden, contractive force, relieved by intense contrasts. Defying the cold and dark, the primordial hearth casts a soothing glow. The brilliant sun of day and bright stars of the winter night contrast with the ashen tones of a natural world in hibernation...while in the winter soundscape, somber bass drones and dense atmospheres are relieved by crystalline accents.

10 February 2017

This week we shine some light into the depths of winter with the celebration of Valentine's Day. The legend of Saint Valentine goes back to an early Christian martyr in 3rd century Rome. We can thank Chaucer for the connection to romantic love in the 14th century, and the Hallmark Corporation for turning it into a yearly holiday with cards and gifts.

The tradition offers a natural connection to quiet musical dialogues that express the sensitive connection between lovers. On this transmission of Hearts of Space, Ambient chamber music and duets for the season, on a program called INTIMACY. Music is by JAMIE SIEBER, BOB KINDLER, RAPHAEL, PETER KATER & TINA GUO, JOSEFINE & TRINA OPSAHL, DAVID DARLING, and MONICA ROBELOTTO.

20 January 2017

The formal, pious, monarchical cultures that produced what we call Medieval and Baroque music seem worlds removed from the chaotic multicultural intensity of our era. Yet, whether coming from cathedral or castle, dedicated to the glory of God or the entertainment of man, whether modal or harmonic, monophonic or polyphonic, homorhythmic or contrapuntal — European music from the Middle Ages to the 18th century still speaks eloquently, and carries a message of faith, civility and grace across the ages.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, we revisit some of the masters of this period — GESUALDO, DOWLAND, HANDEL, and BACH — on an Early Music, Baroque and contemporary journey called CONSONANCE.

23 December 2016

In the Western Classical tradition, some of the most tender, heartfelt and exalted sacred music has been created in honor of Mary, mother of Jesus.

Veneration of Mary has been a subject of devotion in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions since the 2nd century, while Marian hymns and songs have been part of the Western folk and choral music traditions since medieval times.

This abundance of love has produced a wealth of sacred and devotional music that nourishes us during the winter holidays. Adored the world over, the spirit of Mary floats over Western history like a beneficent cloud, carrying a message of eternal feminine wisdom, patience and compassion.

In 2010, our longtime guest producer for classical and sacred spacemusic ELLEN HOLMES collected her favorites for an album that's the basis for this program called SACRED SONGS OF MARY. On this transmission of Hearts of Space, Marian music from the 12th to the 21st centuries by JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH, GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL, CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI, ANTHONY HOLBORNE, JOHN TAVENER, ERIC WHITACRE, MORTEN LAURIDSEN, and more.

SACRED SONGS OF MARY: a holiday celebration...on this transmission of Hearts of Space.

02 December 2016

After the often painful and turbulent days of November, we seek relief from dark and gloomy emotions. We look forward toward increasing light and hope: from opalescent, to translucent, to luminous — harbingers of the season of light and celebration to come.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, we echo that journey through the fragile, pellucid landscape of the psyche, on a program called TRANSLUCENT MUSIC. Selections by LISA GERRARD & JEFF RONA, ELENI KARAINDROU, ARVO PÄRT, VALENTIN SILVESTROV, and KARL JENKINS.

11 November 2016

In good times, life moves swiftly, with little time for reflection. Warnings of impending disaster may go unheeded — until it's too late. Confusion and chaos rule the day.

In stormy times, the wise remain calm, even when the world around them is in turmoil. Turbulence may destroy structures that lack a firm foundation, but this is necessary to build stronger ones. In nature and society, excess must be corrected. Destruction is also the path to renewal.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, an electro-ambient journey for turbulent times called INTO THE STORM.

16 October 2016

Rolling down the on-ramp to autumn...the world is changing faster now. The last warm days of Indian summer are a brief blaze of glory in a fading world. The light mellows, then burns, as the color palette deepens. Fruit trees make a final effort, drop their seeds, then retire for the winter. Acorns bang on the roof, and the squirrels work overtime to gather the crop. Birds head south, as spent leaves skitter across withered fields. Soon, the rains will come, with life-giving water for the next cycle.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, we echo these changes with an ambient-electronic journey for autumn called THE CROSSING. It's a metaphor for the challenge of an epic journey across great distance and uncertain fate, with music of deep drones and complex timbres.

Music is by DAVID HELPLING & JON JENKINS, STEVE ROACH, PHILLIP WILKERSON, and STEVE BRAND.

30 September 2016

Somewhere on the way from ethnic specialty music to the therapeutic edge of popular culture, the Native American flute took on a new mission. Originally used only by a few southwestern tribes like the Anasazi and the Lakota Sioux, the buttery tone and serene energy of these soft cedar instruments opened up a new audience for meditation and stress reduction.

For a few years in the 1980s and 90s, the Native flute found itself within the then-burgeoning new age genre, but as new age faded became a specialty music once again. It's a story that helps separate musicians who are called to the instrument, from those who merely follow popular trends.

In the hands of a master, the cedar flute creates a world of sound that evokes the vast spaces of the American West, opens the heart and summons the spirit. On this transmission of Hearts of Space, another journey in the gentle world of the Native American flute, on a program called TWILIGHT MESA.

10 September 2016

The unmistakable sound of flamenco...or rather, Flamenco Fusion: a mix of traditional Flamenco and electronics from the German/Spanish group B-Tribe.

From its medieval roots in 8th century Al-Andalus after the Muslim conquest of the Iberian peninsula, the music of the Spanish region of Andalusia has been a cultural melting pot, joining Moorish influences from North Africa, Sephardic Jewish songs and European music. With the addition of Romani gypsy influences in the 18th and 19th centuries, the music we now call Flamenco. with its fiery rhythms, dark harmonies and passionate emotions, was born. It's a genre with a signature ambience and feeling that's attracted devoted fans all over the world.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, we return to Flamenco, on a program called ANDALUSIA 2. Music is by B-TRIBE, JESSE COOK, PRIYO, ARMIK, MURIEL ANDERSON, ADAM HURST, JOSÉ LUIS MONTÓN, ZSOFIA BOROS, and the AL-ANDALUS ENSEMBLE.

26 August 2016

THERE'S HARDLY ANYTHING MORE CONTROVERSIAL THAN ISLAM these days, but there's one branch of Muslim culture that by philosophy and practice is peaceful and apolitical. Even so, it has been subject to persecution by other sects.

The mystical, inward-facing order of Sufism goes back to the very beginning of the Islamic religion in the 8th century. It has parallels to the venerable traditions of Buddhist and Hindu mysticism, and aims for direct union with God by purifying the heart.

The work of the Persian Sufi poet RUMI has achieved worldwide popularity for its beauty and insight, and a body of Sufi music evolved to accompany religious practices and meditation — the most famous being the whirling dervishes of the Mevlevi order in Turkey. It's a genre that's not only alive today, but producing new strains of contemplative music.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, we return to the gentle, passionate world of Sufi-influenced music on a program called SUFI SOUL 2. Music is by MERÇAN DEDE, NIYAZ, HANS CHRISTIAN, YUVAL RON, OMAR FARUK TEKBILEK, MICHEL BANABILA, ELIYAHU SILLS, GARY STROUTSOS, and CHRISTOFFER HYLANDER.

19 August 2016

ONCE IN A WHILE something comes along that defies categories, or creates a new one.

That's a good description of the work of the multi-talented San Francisco composer and producer eO, short for ERIC OBERTHALER. On this transmission of Hearts of Space, we're going to bring you a generous helping of his 2011 pocket masterpiece "River Through an Open Door."

eO calls it an "epic odyssey...of the symphotronic, Balkan-spiced, triphop-meets-steampunk, glitchfolk variety." As you'll hear, that's not much of an exaggeration. It's a brilliant gene-slicing of Greek, Mexican, Turkish, Gypsy, Balkan and Klezmer influences, set in a trippy symphonic/electronic/ambient soundscape. We'll put it together with some kindred Downtempo and Ambient, and call this program SYMPHOTRONIC RHAPSODIES. Music is by ERIC OBERTHALER, MIKTEK, NORTHCORE, LUMIN, NELSON FOLTZ & TOM LYNN, and JEFF OSTER.

05 August 2016

According to musician MATTHEW DAVIDSON, an archetribe is "an inherited pattern of thought derived from past collective experience — and present in the unconscious of people sharing some kind of culture."

When it comes to what we now call "world music," the archetribe is a sense that ethnic, folk, and tribal musics all over the world have a great deal in common. And musicians today also have a common technology for recording and working with sound. These powerful commonalities are breeding a new kind of musical language — global minded, respectful of the past, but oriented toward the future.

On this edition of Hearts of Space we explore that language, on a program called ARCHETRIBE. Music is by MARS LAZAR, ALIAS ZONE, KODO, GREEN ISAC, LAYNE REDMOND & TOMMY BRUNJES, SKIN TO SKIN, RICHARD BONE, ROBERT RICH, and ARCHETRIBE.

15 July 2016

Slowly…quietly…dawn overtakes the darkness of the southwestern desert. For those who inhabit its rugged expanses, it's the beginning of a new day and a new cycle of sun, heat, wind and dust — the daily challenges of existence in one of earth's most extreme environments.

No one has written more eloquently about the desert than naturalist EDWARD ABBEY. In his classic book Desert Solitaire, he describes the desert as both a physical environment and a state of mind nurtured by isolation. For Arizona musician STEVE ROACH, the desert is a place of "beauty, stark vastness, magnificent vistas and silence" — a space that "provides a more direct path to the deeper self and the source of one's artistic impulses."

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, we explore that isolation and introspection, on a journey called DESERT SOLITAIRE. Music is by STEVE ROACH & BRIAN PARNHAM, A PRODUCE & LOREN NERELL, KLAUSE WIESE, STEVE BRAND, and RESONANT DRIFT.

24 June 2016

SUMMER brings us one of the greatest free shows on earth. In fair weather, rising water vapor freezes into microcrystals of ice, and we see a vast, constantly changing panorama of clouds, floating and flying overhead. When summer storms arrive, the sky grows dark with the drama of thunder and lightning — nature's original multimedia show.

Clouds come in four families: high, middle, low, and vertical — with official Latin names like cirrus, cumulus and stratus. Satellites now give us the big picture of cloud patterns around the planet and how they affect the weather; there are even clouds on other planets, and interstellar clouds in outer space. It's no wonder that ambient musicians find clouds a major inspiration.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, a cirro-stratus-pheric journey for summer called CLOUDSCAPES.

03 June 2016

THE TYPICAL IMAGE OF THE MIDDLE EAST today is a teeming city or an empty desert landscape. Scoring this landscape is a seductive music built on a few simple instruments like the oud, the ney flute, goatskin drums like the doumbec and the darbuka, and the characteristic sinuous vocals.

It's built on trance-like rhythms, some no doubt derived from the area's nomadic past, when camel caravans were the main method of travel and commerce. Over the years, the steady rhythm of the journey and elegant curves of the desert worked their way into the soul of the music.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, we return to the romantic trans-cultural sound of the Middle East, on a program called DESERT CARAVAN.

13 May 2016

THE SOFT MELODIC RHYTHMS of the first new musical instrument of the 21st century — the Hang (spelled H-A-N-G) from PanArt of Switzerland. It's played with the hands and derived from the steel pan drum, but has been lovingly refined, allowing the player to create melody, rhythm, harmonics and reverberation at the same time. It's a seductive, hypnotic sound that's inspired an international community of players.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, we focus on the Hang and the family of steel drums and resonant percussion. We'll ride the quiet grooves to a place where percussion turns contemplative and rhythm turns to pure sound...on a program called TRANCEDANCE.

The textures are mostly electronic, but acoustic sounds still play a big role. In many cases, you really can't say what the sound is...and that's the point. We're living in an inter-national, supra-cultural, technically-enhanced music matrix, and the results are diverse beyond imagination.

Genre names don't last long in this creative environment. A few years ago, we'd have called this show electronica or ambient, but today some of the artists would object if we did. On this transmission of Hearts of Space, we'll look for a congenial harbor amongst the creative flux. Let's just call it ARGUABLY POST-AMBIENT.

01 April 2016

AHHH, THE ADVENT OF SPING. It arrives in fits and starts...a few warm days punctuated by brisk winds and unpredictable storms. In March, we pass the spring equinox and have a bright new season. The trees bud and blossom, and the natural world stirs and awakes. After the constriction and enclosure of winter, it's a time to stretch, breathe deep, and expand.

The Ambient soundscapes of the season are brighter, bolder, larger, with a sense of possibility, even hope. The long winter is past, the joy of spring and the blissful days of summer are at hand.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, a journey in the vernal soundscape, on a program called EXPANSION. Music is by DAVID HELPLING & JON JENKINS, PATRICK O'HEARN, JOHN LYELL, ALPHA WAVE MOVEMENT, PHILLIP WILKERSON, HAR, and HAROLD BUDD.

18 March 2016

IF THERE'S A PART OF EVERYDAY LIFE THAT ALMOST EVERYONE HATES, it's waiting.

It's a shame, because waiting is unavoidable, like death and taxes —and just about as popular.

Waiting in line...is barely tolerated. God help the person who tries to cut in.

Waiting while driving is even worse, breeding dangerous, irrational behavior.We have a name for that: road rage.

Waiting causes impatience, anger, and stress. We have drugs for that.

We have special rooms for waiting. They're rarely happy places.

In short, waiting is almost always considered a waste of time. A bad thing.

But it doesn't have to be that way. If you have a smart phone, you've already discovered the joys of "continuous episodic computing." It makes waiting productive. Just please...not while you're driving.

With a change in attitude, waiting becomes an opportunity for exploration, a time for discovery. A time to read, play, watch or listen, connect with friends, write. Or simply a quiet space to catch up with yourself.

A good thing.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, an hour of ambient electronics for exploration and discovery, on a program called (wait for it)........WAITING. Music is by BRIAN ENO, STEVE ROACH, CLIVE WRIGHT, and CHUCK VAN ZYL.